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WAFarmers' loss sparks call for merger with PGA

A former president of the WA Farmers Federation says the organisation's poor financial results reinforce the need for the state's two biggest agricultural lobby groups to merge.

The group, now know as WAFarmers, has this week announced a loss of about $280,000 for the 12 months until the end of last November, having budgeted for a loss of just $10,000.

Other rural lobby groups are also facing financial issues.

Mike Norton says those results show why the organisation should merge with the Pastoralists and Graziers Association (PGA).

"Perhaps the new chairmanship of PGA might look at it more favourably than what the previous leadership group of PGA did," he said.

"Obviously they're getting smaller and smaller, they openly admit it - it's rather sad but it's indicative of where agriculture sits in the WA community.

"The way agriculture is at the moment, organisations like WAFarmers can't survive when there's only about 30 or 40 per cent of the farmers out there financially contributing, so we've got a lot of freeloaders out there unfortunately."